The invention relates to implements for cleaning corrugated surfaces, and, more particularly to a hand manipulable shovel having scraping members adapted to fit into the channels of corrugated surfaces inside refrigerated containers.
The transportation of perishable commodities in insulated refrigerated bodies such as trucks, trailers, and containers continues to grow in importance as a factor in the distribution of many of the world's staple foodstuffs, produce, and processed foods. Although trucks, trailers and containers are usually considered a means of transportation only, the use of refrigerated bodies, particularly containers, for temporary storage space, as for example at transportation terminals, is becoming increasingly important as the entire transportation industry further implements the use of and attempts to establish standards of size and constuction for containers having intermodal applications. Highway trailers, separated from their tractors, are carried on railroad flatcars. Trucks and trailers with tractors are driven onto ships. Containers are carried on truck chassis, on railroad flatcars, above and below deck on container ships, and in limited applications, on cargo aircraft.
The trend in the manufacturing of refrigerated insulated bodies continues toward all metal, metal-plastic, or all plastic construction in order to achieve a strong, durable and lightweight body in which the insulation will stay dry, thus maintaining its insulating value. With respect to the requirement for strength, the floors of most containers, trailers and trucks must be constructed to support the weight of a forklift or the like driven inside the refrigerated body to load and unload cargo.
Circulation of chilled air inside a refrigerated body is another important consideration; inadequate air distribution is a principal cause of improper refrigeration of cargo. Because air moves along paths of least resistance, negligible moving chilled air penetrates interstices of non-respiring cargo. Accordingly, a supply of refrigerated air is often directed to channels or grooves in the interior surfaces of the container itself. Movement of chilled air upward from floor channels is efficatious for preserving respiring cargo such as fresh produce. Thus, prefabricated corrugated material having channels for air circulation is widely used for the interior surfaces of refrigerated bodies.
In order to satisfy the requirements for the support of heavy weight such as a forklift and the adequate delivery and circulation of air under the load, the floors of many refrigerated bodies are constructed of corrugated material which is inherently strong by virtue of the corrugations, and also has channels or grooves along which chilled air may flow, the load being supported above the channels by the adjacent ridges of the corrugation. The grooves and ridges are characteristically straight, parallel, regularly spaced apart and equally indented; however deviations from such regularity may occur both in manufacturing and due to abuse as will be explained hereinafter.
Corrugated surfaces of refrigerated bodies are difficult to clean, particularly when the channels become encrusted with ice and the residue and/or remnants of the refrigerated cargo. Truck drivers and others required to clean the interior surfaces of refrigerated bodies of such frozen encrustations in order to maintain an efficient cooling environment have been faced with a frustrating and time consuming task because no suitable cleaning implement existed. Standard shovels are inadaquate because the shovel blade cannot clean the channels of the corrugated surfaces. Implements such as rakes or ice chippers having a plurality of fixed, regularly spaced teeth or tines are not suitable because in most instances the teeth will not fit into the channels of the corrugation. The distance between channels of the corrugation may vary considerably from one container to another because of a lack of manufacturing standards relating to corrugated surfaces in refrigerated bodies; furthermore, variations may even occur within a single unit where prefabricated corrugated sheets from more than one source are utilized to form a single large surface, as for example, the bed of a refrigerated trailer body. Rakes or chipping implements having fixed, regularly spaced teeth designed to fit into corrugations of corresponding spacing, have often proved ineffective and not usable because of irregularities in the parallelism of the corrugations introduced as a result of damage from heavy loads, forklifts or the like.
Single tined implements have been partially effective in cleaning the corrugated surfaces, but the process of cleaning each channel or groove individually is too time-consuming. Moreover, there is a tendency for the icy encrustation being removed from one channel to fall into an adjacent, previously cleaned channel. In order to achieve effective cleaning of a refrigerated body it has often been necessary to completely defrost the unit and clean the corrugated surfaces with high pressure steam and water to remove all the icy encrustation. Such a complete cleaning is also excessively time consuming and cannot be done at many terminals which lack the equipment and facilities for such operations. Additionally, it is often necessary to clean only a portion of a refrigerated body, for example, upon removing part of the cargo of a highway long-haul trailer and prior to loading other cargo for continuation of the haul. Accordingly, there is a need for an implement, preferably in the form of a hand manipulable tool, for cleaning the icy encrustation from the channels of corrugated surfaces inside refrigerated bodies.
It is, therefore, a general object of my invention to provide an improved implement for cleaning corrugated surfaces.
It is a more specific object of my invention to provide an improved shovel having scraping members adapted to fit into channels of corrugated surfaces.
Another object of my invention is to provide an improved hand manipulable implement for cleaning quickly and efficiently the corrugated surfaces inside refrigerated bodies, which implement is universally adaptable to fit an infinite variety of different sized regular spacings between parallel channels of the corrugated surfaces while sliding along the channels without binding as a result of irregularities which may exist in the parallelism of the channels.
Yet another object of my invention is to provide an improved hand manipulable shovel for scooping quickly and simply foreign matter from channels of corrugated surfaces, which implement may be easily and quickly converted for use as a conventional shovel for cleaning relatively flat surfaces.
It is also an object of my invention to provide an improved hand manipulable implement having a plurality of working teeth for cleaning grooves of corrugated surfaces and a plurality of spare teeth which form a functional part of the implement and may be quickly and easily substituted for broken or damaged teeth.